TL;DR
- Rand Paul said gay CDC official Demetre Daskalakis had “no business being in government.”
- Paul attacked Daskalakis’ lifestyle, calling it “risky” and “outside the mainstream.”
- Daskalakis resigned amid concerns over RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine direction at the CDC.
- The senator mocked the doctor’s openness about kink and queer life.
- LGBTQ advocates say Paul’s rhetoric is dangerous and reflects a broader erasure of queer voices in public health.
Rand Paul’s Culture War Jab
Republican senator Rand Paul has once again found a new punching bag — this time, it’s a gay doctor who dared to lead at the CDC. The Kentucky firebrand claimed Demetre Daskalakis, a respected infectious disease expert and openly gay man, had “no business being in government” because of what Paul sneeringly labeled his “lifestyle.”
Paul, who never misses an opportunity to pander to his base, went after Daskalakis days after the doctor resigned from his post as director of the CDC’s Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. The departure followed a wave of resignations tied to health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial handling of vaccine policy.
Speaking to reporters, Paul ranted: “One of the guys that is the biggest proponent of doing all this is the guy who describes the risky behavior that he and his lifestyle involve. A guy that is so far … out of the mainstream, I think most people in America would discount his opinion. He should have never had a position in government.”
The senator then really let the homophobia fly, mocking Daskalakis’ openness about his queer identity: “He brags about his lifestyle, you know, this whole idea of bondage and multiple partners and all that stuff. He’s got no business being in government. It’s good riddance.”
Queer Representation Under Fire
For LGBTQ people, Paul’s outburst isn’t just another headline — it’s a flashing red warning sign. A gay man in a top government health position is precisely the representation queer Americans have fought decades to achieve. To have a senator discredit a doctor’s expertise because he’s unapologetically queer sends a message: queer voices are disposable.
Daskalakis has never hidden who he is. He’s posed for magazine covers in a leather harness, issued candid public health advice during the pandemic (like reminding people to “limit the size of your guest list” if engaging in group sex), and balanced authenticity with science. That honesty has made him a trusted figure in queer health circles. For Paul, though, it’s apparently a disqualifier.
Meanwhile, Daskalakis’ concerns about RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine agenda paint a darker picture. “I may be wrong,” he said last week, “but … based on what I’ve heard with the new members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, they’re moving in an ideologic direction where they want to see the undoing of vaccination.”
Add to that the recent shuttering of the LGBTQ+ Youth Specialised Service hotline under Trump’s orders — a line that saved countless queer lives — and you see the broader pattern: silencing queer voices, dismantling queer resources, and undermining queer safety.
What’s Really at Stake
Rand Paul’s comments aren’t about science, vaccines, or health policy. They’re about smearing a gay man for daring to exist openly in power. It’s politics dressed up as moral outrage, targeting leather harnesses instead of addressing rising disease outbreaks.
For the LGBTQ community, Daskalakis represents visibility, expertise, and pride in the face of stigma. Paul’s attack represents the opposite — the old, tired narrative that queerness is a liability. But if history has proven anything, it’s that queer people don’t just survive these attacks; they thrive despite them. And that resilience, not Paul’s scorn, is what defines the future of public health.